Darkness and Remixing

From the time we are born up until we are about three years old we experience, at least in retrospect, a period of darkness where no memories were retained. In the film, Donnie Darko, it is suggested by the title character and his classmate/love interest, something could be invented to put over a newborn’s eyes in hopes of creating memories sooner. His teacher rebuts with the questions, did he ever think that it was necessary for they’re to be a period of darkness prior to their submergence into the light? Here we are given a pregnant pause, one that insists to the interested viewer that this is something that should be though over.
If it is necessary for darkness through the initial stages of development and adaptation, can it then also be necessary (more safe/efficient) once the program is started for it not to shut down? Steven Pinker, an evolutionary psychologist, suggests that dreams hold an important place and that the content, “might be a screen saver”, and that it is important to keep certain parts of the brain active. The majority of the time we also have darkness to this event, but brain studies have shown that dreaming is the routine practice of sleep.
It is similarly interesting to note that most of what we see is memory. That the way our brain functions is to output memory, “recreating against the new scene something that is an output response that is very similar to the previous one even though the inputs are quite different” (Pinker). This is a good explanation for a why we view things as solids. Atoms bounce in and out of existence as our brains take in the information. When they pop into reality they are seen and when they bounce out our memory is already layered over the scene to fill in the gaps.
Imagining what things might change if these rules were manipulated and if we would be able to adapt to this new set of imagery is thought provoking. It may be that our minds are too delicate and experimentation with what has evolved would cause our downfall. All that is for certain is, together theses systems form balance that allow us to function optimally in our environment, and the absence of any may adversely affect another causing unforeseen damages to the individual. Thus, our only safety is to stay the way nature has selected.